A well known method for the manufacture of masks for fancy dresses and the like consists of incorporating vulcanizing substances to natural rubber latex, leaving the mixture to react such that the vulcanization takes place, filling the mask mold with the thus obtained product, pouring the product out of the mold when a vulcanized rubber latex film of the desired thickness has formed and adhered to the surface of the mask mold, and stripping the thus formed mask film off the mold.
The masks made according to the above described method are adapted to fit on the user's face, though they have two main drawbacks as follows:
In first place, the latex film being impervious, it prevents the perspiration from being vented through it, thus giving to the user a feeling of anguish and suffocation which increases when, as it is assumed, the mask is used in a ballroom the atmosphere of which is very laden, thus giving rise to sweating under the dancing and the like movements.
Secondly, the material of which the obtained masks are made is rather stiff and not very elastic, and therefore the mask does not fit well upon the face and the head of the user and is liable to become of unpleasant and uncomfortable tightness, or even is liable to not remain stable in the desired position, thus making the vision and breathing difficult through the narrow openings provided on the mask to correspond with the user eyes or mouth.